USMLE/COMLEX pass rates?

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KWBum

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Howdy.

I was wondering if anyone knows where, for the various schools, I can find the board exam pass rates/percentages.

I have often heard that this is a good statistic to ask about at interviews. I have not, however, seen it published anywhere (such as on the USNews web pages or that sort of thing).

But it does seem like thing worth knowing. In any event attesting to the efficacy of the program in question.

Thanks!

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Most schools will tell you their pass rates if you ask, though some may not for obvious reasons. At AZCOM the most recent COMLEX pass rate was 99.2%.
 
Interesting.

Then again, DO students are taught specifically to the COMLEX. I wonder how this correlates with pass rates on the USMLE for DO trained students?

The official statistic (http://www.nbme.org/new.version/lice.98.htm) is 89%. Still not bad, but not the 95% or so of MD's.

In any event, any idea of the pass rates for NSU, K, WesternU COMs?

(Obviously, I'm trying to sort out the whole MD/DO thing)
 
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what DO school is trained for the boards. must be lucky!! actually, we all use the same review books, the biggest differance is our exam has osteopathic "stuff" on it.
 
The NBOME(National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners)came out with a bulliten last winter/spring which stated that the national pass rate of June 99' adminstration of Part I of the Comlex was 94%.
Another point I'd like to address was the difference I noted between the Step/Part I COMLEX vs. USMLE which I completed this past June. I believe that NYCOM prepared me for the style of questions I saw on the COMLEX. However, the style of the USMLE questions were slightly different and seemed a little more foreign to me in flavor. I thoroughly believe, however, that the allopathic schools train their students to take "their" exam, and osteopathic schools train for the COMLEX. It's as simple as that. The material covered overlapped dramatically and difficulty levels were overall very similar. Good luck.
 
I took the 6/00 COMLEX and USMLE step 1 exams and did pretty well on both. One thing that I think really helped to prepare me for the USMLE was the practice questions that Kaplan offers on-line (no, I don't work for them). The format was very similar to the actual test, and with 2000 questions to choose from you build up your test taking speed pretty quickly.
 
When asking schools about their board pass rates, be sure to ask who takes the boards. For example, at my school (DMU) we must take and PASS step I of COMLEX before being allowed to progress to our third year. I know some schools just require that students take step I sometime before graduation. Obviously, you would interpret the pass rate differently if fourth year students are included. Also, some schools do not require people to take the test at all for graduation, so those who would likely fail may not sit for the exam. Again, skewed pass rates. (I'm not really sure why you'd decide not to take the exam - a degree without a license means nothing). P.S., DMU's pass rate this year was 98.5% and we are very proud!
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To answer one of the previous questions regarding the COMLEX pass rate for Western U/COMP students, 94% was the pass rate. In addition, the school provided students with a $50 dollar Kaplan course during the spring of 2000. I have been talking to those students and they believe that the Kaplan course was very beneficial.
 
kw, you got to understand something osteopathic medical schools prepare their students for the osteopathic boards and the same goes for allopathic schools. That's way you will see a higher passing rate in the usmle from md's students. If md students were to take the comlex the passing rate would be lower than from osteopathic medical school. The reason for this is bcz the comlex & usmle basically test the same general information the way questions are differ from one to another.

So you should not read too much into do's students having a passing rate of 84% in contrast to the 90 something % for md's students. Md's should have a high passing rate in the usmle that's their board. Ours is the comlex and that why our score is higher in it compare to the usmle. But whta's really important is that both test are equally important and measure the same thing except for the osteopathic part inthe comlex.
Take care,


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siul
 
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